*June (6월/유월) and October (10월/시월) should actually be 육월 and 십월 but, written like that, they are difficult to pronounce. Because of this, their correct pronunciations are 유월 and 시월 NOT 육월 and 십월.

Click on the English words below to see information and examples of that word in use. You probably won’t be able to understand the grammar within the sentences at this point, but seeing words being used in sentences is very helpful for understanding how they can be used.

A PDF file neatly presenting these words and extra information can be found here.

Notes: If I asked 100 people in Canada what their job is, I would probably only get the answer “office worker” a few times. In Korea however, probably 50% of the people would respond with “office worker.” Many Korean people work for big companies in offices, not all doing the same thing obviously, but I’m not exactly sure what they’re all doing in there. Korea has no real natural resources, so the major industry is just “working and business.”

You will see the suffix “원” attached to different words to refer to people.

Example:
한국에서는 회사원이 진짜 많아요 = There are a lot of office workers in Korea
우리 회사는 새로운 회사원을 찾고 있어요 = Our company is looking for new workers

Common Usages:
죽음 = death
힘들어 죽겠다 = a common saying where people say “ah, it’s so difficult, I’m going to die”
배불러 죽겠다 = a common saying where people say “ah, I’m so full, I’m going to die

Examples:
그 사람은 10년 전에 죽었어요 = That person died 10 years ago
그 사람은 작년에 죽었어요 = That person died last year
그곳에 있었던 사람들은 다 죽었다 = All the people that were there died그녀는 아이가 죽었다는 사실을 숨겼어요 = She hid (the fact that) her child died

Notes: 무섭다 and 두렵다 both translate to “scary.” 무섭다 is more typically used to describe the feeling of being scared, usually as it applies to something shocking or something outright scary like snakes or spiders. 두렵다 is more about psychological things in the future, like the fear of death or the fear of tomorrow.

두렵다 and 무섭다 typically describe that something is scary, but it can be used to indicate that you are scared of that thing by using the Subject – Object – Adjective form introduced in Lesson 15.

Notes: When counting months, you can either use 달 or 개월. When using 달, you must use the pure Korean numbers, and when using 개월, you must use the Sino-Korean numbers. There is no difference in meaning, and both are used frequently

Common Usages
하루 종일 = all day
하루 동안 = for one day
하루에 세 번 = three times per day
하루에 한 번 = once per day
하룻밤 = one night

Notes: When counting the number of days, you can usually say something like “5일” (five days). However, for a small number of days (one day, two days) there is a special word that corresponds to that number of days. “일 일” to mean “one day” would never be used.

Notes: When counting the number of days, you can usually say something like “5일” (five days). However, for a small number of days (one day, two days) there is a special word that corresponds to that number of days. “이 일” to mean “two days” would be used, but 이틀 would be more common.

Example:
우리는 계곡에 이틀 동안 갈 거예요 = We are going to the valley for two days저는 이틀 동안 안 잤어요 = I didn’t sleep for two days우리는 이틀 동안 미국에 있었어요 = We were in America for two days우리는 이틀 전에 한국에 왔어요 = We came to Korea two days ago
저는 그 친구를 이틀 후에 만날 거예요 = I will meet that friend two days from now

Notes: Even though “사” (‘four’) is in the word “사흘,” I assure you that 사흘 means “3 days.” Many Korean people think that “사흘” actually means “four days,” and I have pwned some Korean people by showing them that it actually means “three days” by looking it up in the Korean-Korean dictionary with them.

Notes: 지난 can be placed before some indicators of time to mean “last ….”

There are two similar but different meanings for the word “last” in English. 지난 is used for only ONE of those meanings. 지난 is used to talk about something in the past, as in “last night I went to bed late.” It is not used to talk about the last thing in a sequence. See Lessons 10 and 11 for more information.

Example:
학생들은 다음주에 학교에 돌아와요 = The students return to school next week저는 다음주에 영화를 볼 거예요 = I will see a movie next week저는 다음주에 캐나다에 갈 거예요 = I will go to Canada next week저는 다음주에 미국에 갈 거예요 = I will go to the US next week
저는 다음주에 시험 공부를 할 거예요 = Next week, I will study for an exam
다음 주 목요일은 휴가인가? = Is next Thursday a holiday?
아직 간 적이 없어요. 하지만 다음 주에 가 볼 거예요 = I haven’t been there yet. But, I am going (to try) to go next week우리는 다음 주에 그 문제에 대한 회의를 열 거예요 = We are going to hold a meeting next week about that problem

Example:작년에 어디서 공부했어요? = Where did you study last year?
저는 작년에 살이 많이 쪘어요 = I gained a lot of weight last year그는 작년보다 한국어를 훨씬 잘해요 = He is much better at Korean than last year
작년에 우리 회사의 수입은 200만원이었어요 = Our company’s income last year was 200만 won
제가 작년에 가르친 학생 한 명은 벌써 의사가 되었어요 = One of the students I taught last year has already become a doctor

In this lesson, you will build on what you learned in Lesson 10 by learning how to use a variety of different words of time in Korean. Using these words, you will be able to say “I did X for 2 months” or “I didn’t do Y last week.” You will also learn whether you should use the pure Korean or Sino-Korean numbers when using these different words of time.

The use of pure Korean or Sino-Korean numbers may seem random, but there is a reason for it. Anytime the ‘time’ word is of Chinese origin, the Sino-Korean numbers are used. For example “개월” (month) is counted using Sino-Korean numbers, because “개월” is of Chinese origin and has corresponding Chinese (한자) characters. “달” (also meaning month) is a Korean word, and thus, counted using Korean numbers. A lot of Korean words are of Chinese origin and have corresponding Chinese (한자) characters. You will learn about those later.

This lesson is a little bit less organized than the previous lessons. It was difficult to teach everything in this lesson together because you need to have a mutual understanding of all concepts in order to understand one of them. In order to understand how to use 동안, you need to know how to use 주. But in order to understand how to use 주, you should understand how to use 동안. Around and around we go. Anyways, I made it as simple as possible. After this lesson, any time you learn about other ‘time’ grammar concepts, it should be really easy because this lesson will give you a solid base to work from.

“For” a certain amount of time (동안)

동안 is a very useful word that can be used to indicate how long an action occurs. It is typically placed after a duration of time, for example:

2분 = 2 minutes
2분 동안 = for 2 minutes

10분 = 10 minutes
10분 동안 = for 10 minutes

이틀 = two days
이틀 동안 = for two days

동안 can also be used to indicate that an action occurs “while” another action occurs. You will learn about that application in Lesson 33 after learning some key grammar points in the lessons to come.

Those can then be added into sentences to indicate how long one does something for. Notice also that no additional particle is added to 동안. One would think that 에 should be added, but it is not.

While the translation of “동안” in these examples is usually “for”, in essence, what you are doing is stating “for that period of time.” Understanding this will help you understand later usages of “동안” in future lessons. For example:

It doesn’t matter if you use the word or the numeral when writing a number. However, typically the word is written when a pure Korean word is used with a counter like 개, 명, 번, 시간, 대, 살, etc. In situations where Sino-Korean numbers are written (for example, in the sentences above) it makes no difference if you write the numeral or the word.

Also remember that the spacing is different depending on if you write a numeral or a word. If writing the word, there should be a space between the number and the word. For example:

*Notice that 보다 (to see) is used when watching something. You can also use 보다 when you watch a performance or concert, or similar things. In English “I saw a TV” and “I watched TV” have two different meanings, but Koreans simply say “I see TV.”

At this point you are probably asking saying “Okay, I understand how to say that I have done things for X hours or minutes, but what about if I want to say something like:

I will eat in three hours, or
I ate three hours ago

I will go in 10 minutes, or
I came 10 minutes ago”

You will learn how to create those types of sentences when you learn about 전 and 후 in Lesson 24. For the moment, there is a ton of content in this lesson, so try to focus on what is presented here.

Korean Seconds (초)

When talking about seconds, you need to use the Sino-Korean numbers. When putting a number before “초,” it doesn’t matter if you use the word or the numeral. For example:

지난 and 다음 are two words that you can use in many situations, including in situations related to time. In Lesson 10, you learned about 마지막, which can be used to refer to the “last” or “final” thing in a sequence. Remember, Korean people use another word when referring to a “previous” (or last) thing, as in: “I saw a movie last (the previous) week.”

In order to refer to a “previous” thing, the word “지난” can be used. I drew a picture to depict the image I have in my head distinguishing 마지막 and 지난. Imagine you are on a six week trip, and you are currently in your fourth week of the trip. You can use “지난” to refer to the previous week, and you can use “마지막” to refer to the final week. (You can refer to them both as “last week” in English). For example:

지난 can be added immediately before some words of time (I discuss “some” a little bit later) to refer to a “previous” thing. This often translates to “last,” though. For example:

In order to say “attend a class,” Korean people say “수업을 듣다,” which literally translates to “listen to/hear a class.” As such, you can see that the particle ~을 is attached to “수업” because “the class” is the noun that is being listened to. Korean learners are sometimes confused as to why “~에” is not attached to “수업” because they are accustomed to the English way of saying “I didn’t go to the last class”.

Also, note that this sentence is also correct, but is referring to a different class than above:저는 마지막 수업을 안 들었어요 = I didn’t attend the last class

지난 can be added only before some words of time. For example, you couldn’t say “지난 분/지난 초.” These would mean “last minute/second” as in ‘the last minute/second that just passed – which doesn’t make any sense. Notice that they do not have the meaning of “I handed in my paper at the last minute.” This meaning refers to the last minute in a sequence of minutes; therefore, “마지막” must be used in this case.

시간, however, means “time” in addition to being a counter for “hours.” So, “지난 시간” can be used to mean “last time” (but not “last hour”).

Days are very confusing in Korean because there are a few different words you need to be acquainted with. You learned the names of the days of the week in the vocabulary section of another lesson. You should have noticed that every day of the week ends in 일. 일 means “day” but it is never used alone (if it is used alone, it means ‘work’). I’m looking at my Korean calendar now, and see a variety of words ending in “일.” Don’t worry about these words now, just recognize the importance of “일” within them:

총선 = general election
총선일 = the day of the general election (election day)
현충일 = Memorial day

일 is also the counter for days. You learned in Lesson 10 that you must use pure Korean numbers when counting. When you count days, however, you use Sino-Korean numbers. When putting a number before “일,” it doesn’t matter if you use the word or the numeral.

To make things more confusing, if you are counting days from 1 – 10 there is a word that corresponds to “one day,” another word that corresponds to “2 days,” another word that corresponds to “3 days” etc… The most common of these words is 하루 which means “one day.” 하루 is used much more than 일 일. But 2일 (이 일)/3일 (삼 일)/4일 (사 일)/5일 (오 일)/etc are used more than their corresponding words.

You can also place a (Sino-Korean) number before 일 to refer to a specific day in a month. It seems like it would be easy to confuse when one is talking about the day of a month (3일) and when doing something for a specific period (3일). But, in sentences, these are easily distinguishable:

The word “주” can also be used as a counter to counter weeks. When counting weeks, just like when counting days, Sino-Korean numbers are used. When putting a number before “주,” it doesn’t matter if you use the word or the numeral. For example:

First, notice that the names of each month correspond to the number of the month in the calendar For example:

January = 1월
February = 2월
December = 12월

When counting months, you can either use 달 or 개월. When using 달, you must use the pure Korean numbers, and when using 개월, you must use the Sino-Korean numbers. There is no difference in meaning, and both are used frequently. When putting a number before 달, I prefer to write the Korean word. When putting a number before 개월, it doesn’t matter if you use the word or the numeral.

My Korean grammar teacher told me years ago that ‘동안’ is actually incorporated into the meaning of 달, which would mean that you wouldn’t have to say 동안 after 달. Still, though, most people use 동안 after 달.

Korean Years (년)

Years are used just like weeks, which means that you must use the Sino-Korean numbers. When putting a number before “년,” it doesn’t matter if you use the word or the numeral.:

Finally, you can use 이번 just like 지난/다음 when talking about weeks or months to mean “this week/this month.” You cannot say “이번 년,” instead you must use the separate word “올해.”

저는 이번 주에 계획이 없어요 = I have no plans this week저의 어머니는 올해 한국에 올 것입니다 = My mom will come to Korea this yearNote here that it is common to see “에” omitted from the word “올해.” You can also see in the section above that this is not the case with 작년 and 내년.

You cannot use 이번 when talking about minutes/seconds/hours. “I want to go to school this hour” doesn’t make any sense. But remember, in addition to meaning ‘hour’ 시간 also means “time.” This means that you can, say 이번 시간 to mean “this time,” which is usually used when talking about “this time in class.” For example:

When talking about each of these units of time, you can add the particle ~에 to indicate within that unit of time, how much something was done. You can usually translate this to “per” in English. For example:

Almost all the examples in this lesson used 동안. There are other ways you can talk about these time words without using 동안 (for example, “I will go to Canada 3 days from now”). However, this lesson was reaching the 6 page mark, and I didn’t want to overload you more than I already have. I feel like the material in this lesson alone is enough to make your head spin for a while, so I will end it here.

In later lessons, you will learn how to apply the concepts you learned in this lesson to more complicated sentences.

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